Turkish lira

The lira, along with the related currencies of Europe and the Middle East, has its roots in the ancient Roman unit of weight known as the libra which referred to the Troy pound of silver. The Roman libra adoption of the currency spread it throughout Europe and the Near East, where it continued to be used into medieval times. The Turkish lira, the French livre (until 1794), the Italian lira (until 2002), and the British pound (a translated version of the Roman libra; the word "pound" as a unit of weight is still abbreviated as "lb.") are the modern descendants of the ancient currency.

The Ottoman lira was introduced as the main unit of currency in 1844, with the former currency, kuruş, remaining as a ​¹⁄₁₀₀ subdivision. The Ottoman lira remained in circulation until the end of 1927.[4]

Both Livre Turque (in French) and تورك لیراسی (in Ottoman Turkish) phrases used on first-issue banknotes.

Historical banknotes from the second, third and fourth issues have portraits of İsmet İnönü on the obverse side. This change was done according to the 12 January 1926 issue of the official gazette[5][6] and canceled by the Democrat Party after World War II.

After periods of the lira pegged to the British pound and the French franc, a peg of 2.8 Turkish lira = 1 U.S. dollar was adopted in 1946 and maintained until 1960, when the currency was devalued to 9 Turkish lira = 1 dollar. From 1970, a series of hard, then soft pegs to the dollar operated as the value of the Turkish lira began to fall.

The following are based on yearly averages:

• 1960s – 1 U.S. dollar = 9 Turkish lira
• 1970 – 1 U.S. dollar = 11.3 Turkish lira
• 1975 – 1 U.S. dollar = 14.4 Turkish lira
• 1980 – 1 U.S. dollar = 80 Turkish lira
• 1985 – 1 U.S. dollar = 500 Turkish lira
• 1990 – 1 U.S. dollar = 2,500 Turkish lira
• 1995 – 1 U.S. dollar = 43,000 Turkish lira
• 2000 – 1 U.S. dollar = 620,000 Turkish lira
• 2001 - 1 U.S. dollar = 1,250,000 Turkish lira

• 2005 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,350,000 Turkish lira[7][8]

The Guinness Book of Records ranked the Turkish lira as the world's least valuable currency in 1995 and 1996, and again from 1999 to 2004. The Turkish lira had slid in value so far that one original gold lira coin could be sold for 154,400,000 Turkish lira before the 2005 revaluation.

In December 2003, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a law that allowed for redenomination by the removal of six zeros from the Turkish lira, and the creation of a new currency. It was introduced on 1 January 2005, replacing the previous Turkish lira (which remained valid in circulation until the end of 2005) at a rate of 1 second Turkish lira (ISO 4217 code "TRY") = 1,000,000 first Turkish lira (ISO 4217 code "TRL"). With the revaluation of the Turkish lira, the Romanian leu (also revalued in July 2005) briefly became the world's least valued currency unit. At the same time, the Government introduced two new banknotes with the denominations of 50 and 100.

In the transition period between January 2005 and December 2008, the second Turkish lira was officially called Yeni Türk lirası ("New Turkish lira").[9] It was officially abbreviated "YTL" and subdivided into 100 new kuruş (yeni kuruş). Starting in January 2009, the "new" marking was removed from the second Turkish lira, its official name becoming just "Turkish lira" again, abbreviated "TL". All obverse sides of current banknotes have portraits of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Until 2016, the same held for the reverse sides of all current coins, but in 2016 one-lira coins were issued to commemorate the "martyrs and veterans" of the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, the reverse sides of some of which depict hands holding up a Turkish flag while others show in stylized form a collection of five-pointed stars topped by a Turkish flag.[10]

In 2018, the lira's exchange rate accelerated deterioration, reaching a level of US$4.5/TRY by mid-May and of 4.9 a week later. Among economists, the accelerating loss of value was generally attributed to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan preventing the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey from making the necessary interest rate adjustments.[18][19] Erdoğan, who claimed interest rates beyond his control to be "the mother and father of all evil", said that "the central bank can't take this independence and set aside the signals given by the president."[18] Despite Erdogan's apparent opposition, Turkey's Central Bank raised interest rates sharply.[20]

In the campaign for the 2018 general election in Turkey, a widespread conspiracy theory claimed that the Turkish lira's decline were the work of a shadowy group, made up of Americans, English, Dutch and "some Jewish families" who would want to deprive incumbent President Erdogan of support in the elections.[21] According to a poll from April 2018, 42 percent of Turks, and 59 percent of governing AK Party voters, saw the decline in the lira as a plot by foreign powers.[22] Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu claimed Trump's wish to let the current US-Turkish tensions to drag on to the November 2018 US elections so to appeal to his Christian base and gain some points for his party.[23]